This Week in Texs Methodist History November 7 Texas Annual Confernce Meets in Houston November 6-10, 1945 The first postwar session of the Texas Annual Confernce convened in Houston on November 6, 1045. Naturally the clergy and lay members of the conference were relieved and full of joy because of the end of the worst international war in history, but peace brought so many problems and opportunies for churches that they cannot be listed here. World War II had brought about the most dramatic demographic shift in Texas history as hundreds of thousands of rural Texans and out of staters migrated to the industrial sites built to supply the munifiions, futels, lubricants, aircraft, etc needed to win the war. Vast housing tracts has sprung up like mushrooms especially in the coastal counties of the Texas Annual Confernce, especially Orange, Jefferson, Galveston, Brazoria, and Harris. Some churches had been organied to serve these new residents. When peace came, would they return to their former residences? No one knew. During the War the G.I. Bill was passed. College administrators knew there would be a surge in enrollement. For Methodists that meant that SMU, Southwestern, Wiley, and the other Methodist schools would have to be enlarged and the state universities would need expanded Wesley Foundations. Another problem was how to appoint the returning chaplains. When the conference convened, there were still 28 Texas Confernce preachers on the Chaplain’s roll (22 Army and 6 Navy). The military was taking its time returning them to civilian life, but everyone knew they would be returning, and under Methodist Discipline, they all needed appointments and those appointments needed to be commensurate with their gifts and graces. One of the most interesting developments of the conference was the trarsnfer of Durwood Fleming from the North Texas Confence to organize a new church in the 3700 block of Westheimer Road in Houston. Prospective members of this church had already been meeting in the Lamar High School and had secured five acres of land. They were looking forward to the appointment of Durwood Fleming who was scheduled to preach his first sermon to the church in the Lamar HS auditorim on November 11, 1945. The church---St. Luke’s ---evenually beame one of the great churches of Texas, but most readrs will not realize that in 1945 when it was organized, it was outside the city limits of Houston----in effect a country church.